When the Arctic Melts

Plus: Rachel Kushner’s eerie new spy novel; growing up with Ved Mehta; and should you just give up? View in browser | Update your preferences Tuesday, October 8, 2024 In today’s newsletter, as the potentially devastating Hurricane Milton is bearing down on Florida’s west coast, a new feature from Elizabeth Kolbert explores signs of climate distress coming from Greenland. And then: • Rachel Kushner’s eerie new spy novel • Growing up with Ved Mehta • Should you just give up? Elizabeth Kolbert Staff writer Photograph by Ragnar Axelsson for The New Yorker Project Iceworm, a scheme hatched by the U.S. Army in the late nineteen-fifties, lent new meaning to the phrase “fighting a cold war.” The plan called for boring thousands of miles of tunnels into the Greenland ice sheet. These would then be used to shuttle around nuclear missiles in a great, subglacial game of cat and mouse. Iceworm was, of course, secret. But the missile project, which never proceeded beyond the planning stage, had a public component that actually got built in Greenland’s northwest corner: a research station called Camp Century. The station boasted a mess hall, barracks, a library, a post office, and a hobby shop, all encased in the ice. Though Camp Century was mostly a front, real research was conducted there. In the mid-sixties, a team of scientists succeeded in drilling all the way through the ice sheet, about forty-five hundred feet deep. The drillers pulled up hundreds of cylinders of ice, which turned out to contain a wealth of information about the climate and helped make ice drilling a scientific subfield. Pursuant to this, in the late eighties, the National Science Foundation established a research station at the very center of Greenland, where the ice sheet is nearly two miles thick. Scientists there eventually managed to drill down more than ten thousand feet. For my piece in this week’s issue, I travelled to the N.S.F. station. It is now called Summit, and, though it sits on, rather than under, the ice, the station is still a marvel of engineering. The top of the Greenland ice sheet is one of the most remarkable places a person can visit without leaving planet Earth—a frigid, featureless expanse of pure white. I went to Summit because, even at its very highest point, where temperatures remain the coldest, the Greenland ice sheet is now experiencing melt. Is this a climatological warning sign, or something even more ominous? Read “When the Arctic Melts” Further reading: Kolbert has visited Greenland’s ice sheet before. “I keep finding myself drawn back to the ice—to its beauty, to its otherworldliness, to its sheer, ungodly significance,” she writes in a piece, from 2016, about life on a shrinking landmass. Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » From the News Desk Profiles Why the Godfather of A.I. Fears What He’s Built Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics today. This Profile, from 2023, explores how his lifework in neural nets has led him to believe that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to the human species. By Joshua Rothman Q. & A. What Was Possible Before October 7th, and What Remains Possible Now How the war between Israel and Hamas has reshaped the region, and where the conflict goes from here. By Isaac Chotiner Open Questions Should You Just Give Up? Illustration by Josie Norton Sure, striving feels good—but have you tried giving up? Putting the load down? Embracing imperfectionism? Joshua Rothman looks at two books that explore how letting go might be the way to go, one by a psychoanalyst and the other by a journalist turned self-help author. Both writers suggest that there is much to be gained when you give up. Read the column » Open Questions publishes every Tuesday. If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please share it. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up. Editor’s Pick Personal History Growing Up with the Writer Ved Mehta My father, who was blind, was obsessed with the way things looked—sometimes it felt like the British Raj was alive and well in our New York apartment. By Sage Mehta Culture Dept. Books Rachel Kushner’s Covert Op Against Realism In her new spy novel, “Creation Lake,” Kushner attempts to expose the tradecraft of fiction itself. By Alexandra Schwartz Page-Turner The Bard of Turkish Alienation In “Waiting for the Fear,” Oğuz Atay’s narrators are in a constant state of revolt—against their country, their language, even their thoughts. By Merve Emre Fun & Games Dept. Crossword A Moderately Challenging Puzzle “Waitress” star Bareilles: four letters. By Aimee Lucido Sketchbook Official Survey by the National Association of Toddlers Why I took off my hat? Why my hat not on my head? And other important data points. By Liana Finck Daily Cartoon Tuesday, October 8th By Mick Stevens Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play a quiz from our archive » P.S. The Great Chicago Fire began on this day in 1871. Last year, Margaret Talbot investigated how the fire—which burned for many hours, killed an estimated three hundred people, and left thousands unhoused—got started. It turns out that there are some uncomfortable truths to be found in the ashes. The disaster is “a rich case study not only in urban history and the sociology of catastrophe,” Talbot writes, “but in how people choose to remember their collective past.” What did you think of today’s newsletter? Let us know. If you like the daily newsletter, browse more New Yorker newsletters. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. 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